Why is the Navy off course? Some experts contend that too many recent chiefs were submariners.

As the Tailhook sexual-assault scandal drove him into early retirement from the Navy, Admiral Frank Kelso last week sought to overhaul his image. The Navy's top officer claimed that during his nearly four years at the helm, he had helped rid the service of its tolerance for abusive attitudes toward women. If anyone treats women as did the drunken, groping aviators at the Tailhook convention 2 1/2 years ago, Kelso blustered at a press conference, "they're not going to be in this man's Navy."

In fact, his legacy is a Navy still straining to accommodate women, homosexuals and members of racial...